Paramount Skydance’s $108 Billion Hostile Bid for Warner Bros Discovery: Inside the Showdown With Netflix and the Future of Hollywood

On 8 December 2025, Hollywood’s most dramatic takeover battle in years escalated again as Paramount Skydance launched a hostile, all‑cash bid to buy Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) for $30 a share – valuing the company at about $108.4 billion including debt. The move directly challenges the $82.7 billion deal WBD struck just days earlier to sell its studio and HBO to Netflix, and puts some of the world’s most valuable entertainment brands at the centre of a high‑stakes fight involving Wall Street, Washington and foreign investors. ^[1]

Netflix had been declared the winner of a months‑long auction on 5 December, agreeing to acquire Warner Bros’ film and TV studios, HBO and HBO Max for $72 billion in cash and stock and to assume more than $10 billion of WBD debt. Paramount Skydance’s hostile counter‑offer now reopens the contest – and raises fresh questions over competition, media plurality and political influence as regulators, unions and lawmakers line up to scrutinise both deals. ^[2]

What Happened on 8 December 2025?

On Monday 8 December, Paramount Skydance – the company formed this year when David Ellison’s Skydance Media took over CBS owner Paramount – switched from back‑room negotiations to a full‑blown public offensive. After a series of private offers were rejected by the WBD board during the auction process, Paramount filed a hostile tender offer, appealing directly to Warner Bros Discovery shareholders. ^[3]

Key elements of the new move:

Offer price: $30 in cash for each WBD share – an increase on Paramount’s previous bids and higher than the $27.75 per share implied by Netflix’s cash‑plus‑stock proposal. ^[4]
Headline valuation: Around $78 billion in equity value at $30 a share, and roughly $108.4 billion including WBD’s debt, one of the largest media deals ever proposed. ^[5]
Scope: Paramount is bidding for all of WBD – from the Warner Bros studio lot and HBO to cable channels such as CNN, TNT, HGTV and Discovery. Netflix’s deal, by contrast, covers only the studios, HBO and HBO Max, leaving the cable networks to be spun off into a new company. ^[6]

The WBD board responded by confirming it would “carefully review and consider” Paramount Skydance’s bid but stressed that it is not changing its recommendation that shareholders back the Netflix deal. Until the review is complete, WBD has urged investors to take no action on Paramount’s offer. ^[7]

Paramount’s tender is currently scheduled to expire on 8 January 2026, although that deadline can be extended. WBD has said it will issue a formal recommendation to its shareholders on the Paramount offer within around 10 days of receiving it. ^[8]

How Paramount’s Hostile Offer Compares With Netflix’s Deal

At the heart of the showdown is a straightforward question for WBD investors: take more cash now from Paramount or stick with Netflix’s mix of cash, stock and a spin‑off?

Deal terms and valuations

Netflix’s agreed deal for WBD assets ^[9]

Equity value: $72 billion
Enterprise value (including assumed debt): $82.7 billion
Per‑share terms: about $27.75 per WBD share, comprising roughly $23.25 in cash plus $4.50 in Netflix stock.
Scope: Warner Bros film and TV studios, HBO and HBO Max; excludes cable networks such as CNN, TNT and Discovery, which would be spun into a new company, tentatively called Discovery Global.

Paramount Skydance’s hostile bid for the whole of WBD ^[10]

Equity value: about $78 billion at $30 per share, all in cash.
Enterprise value: approximately $108.4 billion including WBD debt.
Premium: Paramount highlights a 139% premium over WBD’s closing share price of $12.54 on 10 September, the day before its interest leaked, and says its bid delivers around $18 billion more cash to shareholders than Netflix’s offer.

From a headline perspective, Paramount’s bid is richer and simpler: more cash, no stock‑market risk, and a single owner for all of WBD’s assets. Netflix’s deal offers slightly higher implied value when the future value of the cable spin‑off is included – Warner’s board argues that Discovery Global could add $3–4 a share, pushing total value above $31 – but that upside depends on how markets ultimately value the new company. ^[11]

Strategic differences: streaming vs full‑spectrum media giant

The two proposals also reflect radically different visions for the future of Warner Bros Discovery:

Under Netflix
- Netflix would control HBO’s premium TV slate (from Game of Thrones and Succession to The White Lotusand Industry), alongside DC superheroes, Harry Potter and Warner’s vast library, dramatically deepening its content bench. ^[12]
- WBD’s cable brands – CNN, TNT, HGTV, Food Network and others – would be separated into a stand‑alone publicly listed network operator, with David Zaslav staying on to manage them until the spin‑off is complete. ^[13]
Under Paramount Skydance
- The combined group would bring together Paramount Pictures, CBS, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central and Paramount+ with Warner’s studios, HBO, HBO Max and cable networks, creating a vertically integrated giant spanning broadcast, cable and streaming. ^[14]
- Paramount is promising to maintain and even expand theatrical releases and increase overall content spending, positioning itself as more aligned with traditional Hollywood interests than Netflix, whose streaming‑first strategy has often rankled exhibitors and creatives. ^[15]

Why Paramount Went Hostile – and What That Actually Means

A hostile bid is not about aggression in tone; it’s a technical term describing a takeover attempt that goes around a company’s board and straight to its shareholders.

Paramount Skydance had spent weeks in a confidential auction process, submitting multiple proposals – six in total over roughly 12 weeks, according to the company – to buy all of WBD. But the board consistently favoured a Netflix transaction that carved off only part of the business. ^[16]

Tensions spiked on 4 December when Paramount’s lawyers sent a letter to WBD CEO David Zaslav accusing management of running a “tainted” sale process that, in Paramount’s view, effectively predetermined Netflix as the winner. The letter flagged reports of a WBD executive discussing “merger prospects” with EU officials in Brussels and suggested the company had been overly focused on concerns that a Paramount takeover would cause excessive media concentration. Warner Bros Discovery has rejected the notion that the process was unfair and insists its board has honoured its fiduciary duties. ^[17]

With the board unwilling to embrace its proposals, Paramount opted for a hostile route: a public tender directly to WBD shareholders coupled with a media and political campaign arguing that its bid is “superior in every dimension” – price, regulatory certainty and Hollywood’s long‑term health. ^[18]

Who Is Bankrolling Paramount’s Bid – and Why It’s Controversial

Behind the new Paramount is a complex web of financing that is already drawing intense scrutiny.

According to regulatory filings cited by Reuters and the Los Angeles Times, Ellison family entities and private‑equity partner RedBird Capital have agreed to backstop roughly $40.7 billion of equity for the deal. Additional financing is expected from: ^[19]

Affinity Partners, the investment firm run by Jared Kushner, son‑in‑law of President Donald Trump.
Sovereign wealth funds from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, providing tens of billions in capital.
A smaller tranche from Chinese tech group Tencent and other investors, according to earlier reporting. ^[20]

This mix raises two sets of questions:

Political influence: Paramount’s new owners already have close ties to the Trump administration. Skydance’s acquisition of Paramount earlier this year followed CBS cancelling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and paying a settlement to Trump – moves some critics read as political capitulation. Now, Kushner’s involvement in a deal that includes CNN and other news outlets has prompted warnings about potential conflicts of interest and editorial independence. ^[21]
National security and foreign investment: The participation of Middle Eastern state funds and a major Chinese company means any successful Paramount‑WBD merger would face review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), on top of antitrust scrutiny by the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission. Senator Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats have already argued that regulators must judge any Warner Bros transaction strictly on the law and facts, not on which bidder is politically closer to the White House. ^[22]

Washington and Wall Street: Trump, Regulators and a Break‑Fee Minefield

The political context is unusually charged. Trump has publicly questioned Netflix’s acquisition, warning at the weekend that allowing the streaming leader to swallow Warner Bros Discovery “could be a problem” because of the combined market share in entertainment. At the same time, reporting suggests the White House has in the past favoured Paramount over rivals such as Comcast, partly due to longstanding hostility to liberal‑leaning cable news brands. ^[23]

Yet the relationship is far from straightforward. After Paramount’s hostile offer, Trump lambasted the company on social media over a 60 Minutes segment featuring congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, suggesting that his stance toward the Ellisons is not guaranteed. ^[24]

Whichever suitor prevails, regulators will be pivotal:

Antitrust concerns
- Netflix already has more than 300 million streaming subscribers worldwide; acquiring HBO Max would push its base north of 420 million, dwarfing rivals such as Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video. Antitrust experts and cinema owners warn that allowing the dominant streaming platform to buy a major competitor could squeeze both theaters and creative workers and reduce consumer choice. ^[25]
- A Paramount‑WBD tie‑up would consolidate two major TV and streaming groups. Democratic senators have warned that such a combination could lead to “one company controlling almost everything Americans watch on TV,” intensifying concerns over media concentration. ^[26]
Break‑up fees and deal risk
- Netflix’s agreement includes a $5.8 billion termination fee it would owe WBD if regulators ultimately block the transaction. ^[27]
- Conversely, if Warner Bros Discovery walks away from Netflix in favour of Paramount or another buyer, it would have to pay Netflix around $2.8 billion. That penalty is a key reason the WBD board insists shareholders need to weigh any alternative offer very carefully. ^[28]

Paramount counters that its closer ties to the Trump administration and smaller share of global streaming subscribers should make its deal easier and faster to approve – though sceptics point out that heavy foreign backing and the inclusion of a major news network like CNN could make the review more, not less, complex. ^[29]

What’s at Stake for Hollywood, Creators and Audiences

This isn’t just another corporate reshuffle. Whatever happens to Warner Bros Discovery will help define who controls storytelling in the streaming era.

A radically reshaped content landscape

Both Netflix and Paramount would gain unprecedented control over high‑value intellectual property:

Warner Bros franchises such as Harry Potter, DC Comics, The Lord of the Rings and classic films.
HBO’s deep library of acclaimed dramas and comedies – from The Sopranos and Succession to The White Lotusand Industry.
Paramount’s existing hits, including Mission: Impossible, Top Gun, SpongeBob SquarePants, South Park and Yellowstone. ^[30]

A Netflix‑WBD combination would create an almost unmatched streaming catalogue under a single subscription, while a Paramount‑WBD deal would create a hybrid juggernaut spanning broadcast TV, cable and streaming, with vast leverage over distribution windows and licensing.

Jobs, labour relations and the future of movie theaters

Hollywood labour groups are already alarmed by both scenarios:

Cinema owners have warned that a Netflix takeover could pose an “unprecedented threat” to movie theaters worldwide, given the company’s history of favouring short or simultaneous theatrical and streaming releases. ^[31]
Writers’ guilds argue that allowing the world’s biggest streamer to buy one of its principal rivals is exactly what antitrust laws are meant to prevent, predicting pressure on jobs, wages and working conditions if the deal proceeds. ^[32]
The Directors Guild and others say a Paramount deal may also lead to significant layoffs because of the large debt involved, even as Paramount insists it would boost theatrical output and content budgets. ^[33]

Paramount is leaning hard into the idea that it is more aligned with Hollywood’s traditional ecosystem – promising more movies in cinemas, higher content spend and a “pro‑Hollywood, pro‑consumer, pro‑competition” future. Netflix, for its part, argues that consolidating Warner’s IP with its global streaming platform will generate more investment in new shows and films for a worldwide audience. ^[34]

Market Reaction: Investors Bet on a Bidding War

Financial markets quickly priced in the likelihood of a prolonged contest:

Paramount Skydance shares climbed around 8% on Monday as investors welcomed the bold move and the prospect of becoming a much larger media player. ^[35]
Warner Bros Discovery stock rose, reflecting hopes that shareholders may ultimately get either a higher price from Netflix or a richer all‑cash exit via Paramount. ^[36]
Netflix shares fell roughly 4–5%, as investors weighed regulatory risk, the possibility of a hotter bidding war and the near‑term cost of the Warner acquisition. ^[37]

For now, Wall Street seems to believe that WBD is firmly “in play” and that the winning bidder may need to go even higher or tweak deal terms to satisfy both shareholders and regulators.

What Happens Next?

Over the coming weeks, several milestones will determine the fate of Warner Bros Discovery – and, by extension, a large slice of the global entertainment business:

Board recommendation on Paramount’s offer
WBD has said it will give shareholders its official view on the hostile bid within about 10 days. That recommendation will be closely watched for any sign that the board is softening its pro‑Netflix stance. ^[38]
Shareholder response
Institutional investors and activist funds could try to push Warner Bros Discovery to negotiate with Paramount or demand improvements from Netflix. Even a small but vocal group of shareholders could influence the narrative around “best value.”
Potential counter‑moves
- Netflix could decide to sweeten its offer – for example by increasing the cash component or guaranteeing more robust theatrical strategies – to keep WBD firmly in its camp.
- Paramount Skydance might raise its bid, clarify financing further or offer governance concessions to ease concerns about political and foreign influence. ^[39]
Regulatory and political positioning
Both sides are likely to intensify lobbying efforts in Washington, Brussels and other key capitals, seeking to convince officials that their proposal is better for competition, workers and consumers. Expect more public statements from lawmakers, unions and industry groups in the days ahead. ^[40]
Tender‑offer deadline – 8 January 2026
If Paramount’s hostile bid remains open through early January, WBD shareholders will face a concrete decision: tender their shares to Paramount, wait on the Netflix deal, or bet that the fight produces an even richer outcome. ^[41]

The Big Picture: A Make‑or‑Break Moment for Media Consolidation

Whatever the final outcome, the battle between Paramount Skydance and Netflix for Warner Bros Discovery marks a turning point for the media industry:

It is a test of how far regulators will allow consolidation in an era when a handful of tech and media giants already dominate global entertainment.
It will influence the balance of power between streaming platforms, traditional broadcasters, cable networks and movie theaters.
It will shape where – and how – audiences around the world watch everything from superheroes and fantasy epics to news and late‑night comedy.

For now, one thing is clear: on and after 8 December 2025, Warner Bros Discovery is the prize in a takeover fight unlike anything Hollywood has seen in years – and the story is far from over. ^[42]